The Chief Minister of Odisha, Shri Naveen Patnaik has inaugurated a Museum Gallery on North East Biodiversity in the Regional Museum of Natural History (RMNH) Bhubaneswar today. The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment & Forests, MoEF Shri Jairam Ramesh, was also present on the occasion. This Museum Gallery depicts the natural heritage of North-Eastern India which includes two of the 34 Biodiversity hotspots in the World: Himalayas and Indo-Burma.

On the occasion, Shri Jairam Ramesh, said that his Ministry would establish two institutions, the National Centre on Wetlands and Marine Biodiversity in Bhubaneswar, and National Centre on Olive Ridley and Marine Biodiversity at Gahirmatha in Odisha.

On the sidelines of the programme the Minster also inaugurated the Fragrance Garden at the Regional office of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. He announced that this would be developed into a Biocultural park. He also announced that the Ministry would make efforts to get a digital copy of Jardin de Lorixa, considered to be the earliest scientific documentation of traditional/ indigenous knowledge about plants of Orissa, of which only one manuscript is available in Natural History Museum Paris (France).

During this occasion brochures on North East Biodiversity Gallery was released by Shri NaveenPatnaik, and on the Museum by Shri Jairam Ramesh. .

… This new gallery on North East Biodiversity is having exhibits depicting Different eco-regions of North East, the course of the mighty river Brahmaputra, Kaziranga –The habitat of one horned Indian rhinoceros, the endemic and endangered avifauna, rich diversity of non human primates, Orchids and rhododendron of North East, New species discoveries from Eastern Himalayas, the hills, waterfalls, sacred groves of Meghalaya and the Loktak lake – a unique habitat of Sangai etc.

From http://www.conservationandsociety.org: "a long forgotten herbal known as Le Jardin de Lorixa ( The garden of Orissa ) and credited to a surgeon named Nicolas L’Empereur in the employ of the French Compagnie des Indes"

Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh today said the Centre would set up two national institutes for specialised studies on coastal eco-system and turtles in Orissa at an investment of Rs 50 crore. The Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) would help set up these two institutes which would include a National Centre for Wetland and Coastal Eco-system Studies at a cost of Rs 40 crore, Ramesh told reporters here. The amount would be spent over the next five years and the centres would operate from Bhubaneswar and Chilika. Similarly a Centre for Turtles and Bio-diversity Studies would be established at an investment of Rs 10 crore and the state government would decide on its location, the environment minister said. … The announcement came a day after the Union Minister said that a technical institute would be set up in Bhitarkanika National Park area in Kendrapara district to train local youths in plumbing and coir industries.

Thanks to Minister Ramesh for these. But they don’t compensate the harm that Ramesh and his ministry have done by stopping the construction of Vedanta University.

… The Union Minister for Forest & Environment has approved the first ever National Research Institute for Management of Wetlands and Coastal Ecosystems to be set up in the state.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik last year requested for the same.

… Minister Mr.Ramesh has favored an investment of Rs.30 crore for the project.

Upendra Nath Behera, Principal Secretary Forest & Environment was informed by V N Kaul, Director Environment in the Ministry of Forest & Environment (MOEF) about the decision of the Union Government here on 26 March.

Mr.Kaul said the Union Minister recently has green signaled not only for the project, but also funding for the same.

Rs.10 crore recurring grant will be available for the institute for research and development of eco-system of coastal zones and wet lands.

… Located 100 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, Chilika is known to support the largest concentration of migratory waterfowl in India.

At least a million birds are seen at the lake every winter.

They belong to 165 species, of which 93 are migratory and 72 are residential.

The Institute will have one campus at Chilika and another at Capital City, said sources. While Chilika Campus will look after wetland research, the Bhubaneswar Campus will be dedicated for Costal Eco-Managment researches, said an official.